vimfandomcom-20200223-history
Vim Tips Wiki:Delete guidelines
In short Flag unhelpful tips using dodgy or deprecate, or remove them with delete. Examples and explanations Many tips are of doubtful value. Or perhaps a tip is great, but it is similar to another tip, and the two tips should be merged. We need fairly ruthless pruning to make the Vim Tips wiki a valuable resource so newcomers don't have to read several poor tips before finding something useful. Also, we want to focus the attention of contributors so they only work on useful tips, and don't waste time cleaning up material that should be deleted (because it's not helpful, or is obsolete, or is a duplicate). Here are some procedures to handle an unwanted tip: *'Dodgy' Mark the tip as dodgy (of doubtful value, particularly for recent Vim versions). *'Deprecate' Mark the tip as deprecated (other procedures are preferred). *'Delete' Request tip deletion. *'Merge' This is the best way to delete a tip (copy any useful content from this tip to an earlier similar tip). You can use the Dodgy template if you think a tip should be retained, but you want to warn readers that the tip contains advice that is inappropriate for the current Vim release. See Template:Dodgy for the template, and Category:Dodgy for the resulting category, with a list of dodgy tips. You can use the Deprecated template if you think a tip should be retained, but you want to warn readers that the tip is obsolete. See Template:Deprecated for the template, and Category:Deprecated for the resulting category, with a list of deprecated tips. Merging and flagging tips is further discussed in the template guidelines. Merging a tip will result in the tip being deleted, but merging is better because it provides a polite reason for removing a tip, and guides readers to a helpful tip. For example, if you visit VimTip5 you will find a link to the current merged tip. Only an can delete a tip. You can request deletion by putting at the top of a tip. That displays a prominent This page is a candidate for deletion box, and adds Category:Candidates for deletion to the tip. You can click the resulting link to see all to-be-deleted tips, and to discuss whether a tip should be deleted. Where a consensus is reached after discussion, a sysop will delete the to-be-deleted tips, and will use Template:Removed to change the redirect page for the tip. Currently, JohnBeckett usually performs that operation with a script that generates the required VimTip''Number'' pages, which are then uploaded using the JohnBot account. This ensures that tip navigation works after a tip is deleted. Each tip has two pages: a VimTip''Number'' redirect page, and the actual tip page. Take tip 12 as an example: *This is the redirect page *This is the tip page, using its redirect *This is the same tip page, using its title When viewing a tip, a navigation bar at the top allows you to view the previous or next tip. That navigation needs to keep working after a tip has been deleted. Deleting a redirect A redirect page consists of a single line like this: #REDIRECT Whatever where Whatever is the title of the page that is the target of the redirect. If you think that a redirect page should be deleted, change it like this: #REDIRECT Whatever Then the redirect page will no longer function as a redirect, and it will be listed at Category:Candidates for deletion. The Whatever link is still available if you want to click it. Category:Policy